This is my arrangement of Jingle Bells played on a James Lister classical guitar in open G tuning.
It was one of my first experiments using a green screen in the video recording and the colour didn’t work as well as I’d have liked. Oh well, perhaps I’ll stick with black backdrops in future!
Alternate Tuning – Open G
The tuning of the guitar has been altered to open G. This is where the top and bottom E strings are tuned down a tone to D and the 5th A string is tuned down to G. (DGDGBD). This allows the open strings to ring out and simplifies some of the fingering. The bass lines are mainly the two open bottom strings, which makes for a nice, jolly alternating bass.
Happy Christmas everybody!!
Recording the “Jingle Bells” Video
For those who like to know what equipment was used in the recording, the microphone is a Rode NT2 mono condenser which you can see in the video. It was recorded at home in my office which doesn’t have any special acoustic treatment. When the mic is pointed away from the window, no traffic noise is picked up, and you can’t hear the family arguing in the next room (well it is Christmas!).
The mic is plugged into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface, and mixed in Sonar X3 with a little Sonitus reverb.
I used a green screen for the video recording.
This involves putting up a green cloth as the backdrop, The video editing software then removes anything green from the video and it can be superimposed on a new background. Which, in this case, is the christmas tree in the hall! (I couldn’t get the recording gear to stretch from my office!)
The video was recorded with a Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder and edited using Magix Video Pro 7, with the chroma key used to change the background.
You can find out more about green screen recording here.
Other Guitar Videos
“Walking In The Air” by Howard Blake (also called The Snowman)
“Feelings” by Albert Morris
“Over The Rainbow” by Eva Cassidy
“All of Me” by John Legend